Captain Marvel Jr. (Freddy Freeman) is a fictional character, a superhero originally published by Fawcett Comics and currently published by DC Comics.

In the original Fawcett and DC continuity, Captain Marvel Jr.’s alter-ego was Freddy Freeman, a crippled newsboy saved by Captain Marvel from the villainous Captain Nazi. Junior derived his powers from Captain Marvel himself, while the other Marvels derived their powers from the wizard Shazam. By saying the name “Captain Marvel”, Freddy is transformed into the teenaged Captain Marvel Jr. Unlike Captain Marvel and the modern-era version of Mary Marvel, Junior remained a teenager in his transformed state.

After Fawcett Comics’ success with their first superhero character, Captain Marvel, the company decided to introduce a spin-off character. Although Captain Marvel had been given part-time sidekicks in the form of the look-alike Lieutenant Marvels in Whiz Comics #21 (Sept. 1941), Fawcett Comics editor Ed Herron wanted to introduce a distinctive spin-off character. Captain Marvel transformed from teenage boy to adult superhero with a magic word; Herron decided for his new character to remain a teenager to differentiate him from Captain Marvel. Fawcett staff artist Mac Raboy designed the new character, named Captain Marvel Jr., using a more realistic style parting with C.C. Beck’s more cartoony artwork for the Captain Marvel stories. Whereas Captain Marvel changed identities by saying “Shazam”, Captain Marvel Jr. says “Captain Marvel” to transform; this was intended to serve as a frequent reminder to readers to buy the Captain Marvel Sr. books.